Many people often ask me the reason why I changed my mind and my practice so radically after years of critics against beliefs and habits, becoming a fan of tradition and old style practice.

The answer is easy…

My course in Martial Arts began in early ‘80s with Judo and Ju Jitsu following an excellent French master.  I’ve spent ages in creating my “dimension”, my “place”, my “house”, martially talking. I thought many times I had found it (from Filipino Kali to Muay Thai). Then I turned to JKD / Kali Paul Vunak method in ‘90s, first studying with some of his students and then, in 1995, with him directly.

This was love at first sight. I thought I had found what I have always been dreaming of.

I became Senior Instructor of this method in few years (the highest level of the PFS, at that time only six people have it). I’ve opened many centers in Europe helped by my assistants and I let many people know my method.
But in my heart this was not the arrival, the perfection, something was still missing. But I really didn’t know what yet.

I decided to give up with JKD at the beginning of 2000, even if the School was deep-rooted already and developed all over Europe with many Assistant Instructors. I could stand to see such a different Art, changed because of it has became a trend thought by instructors in few lessons, by “Masters” who swapped the “black belt” title with the JKD trainer upgrade.

I was really disappointed.

I decided to go on discovering, looking for what I was searching at the beginning (I have to admit that JKD from Indonesian School has been influenced by Combat Art from south-east Asia).
I wasn’t  directed to Kali, as everybody can think easily, but to Silat (an Art considered “The Mother” by many popular Masters in Philippines and USA), a discipline I could practice few years earlier, but at that time I was too young to understand.

But this time something magical happens.

One night, at around 3 am, talking with one of my Guru I found all the answers to all those technical questions JKD left me.

I found the reasons of all those movements and strategies in JURES (forms) and SAMBUT (applications), something I really didn’t understand before, when I was focused on immediate practice only.
I saw other important JKD Masters turning to Indonesian Serak before me (D. Inosanto was the first one and then C. Magda, B. Richardson and so on). Here I found the efficacy I was looking for (at a level never seen before) and the structural knowledge which is the base of this Art.

I could see then every technique I’ve studied before in a new and more powerful dimension, new but familiar at the same time. I could think I have never practice JKD in all those years, but Silat. An very ancient Art was in front of me, apparently simple, but deep and wide to make me breathless.
I’ve found an hidden world, far from the noise of the modernism an Martial Arts, the search for technique is  linked to health, philosophy and popular culture  where the Art weas born (Indonesian culture derives from an union of soul, Indo-Buddhist  and Sufi habits).

If I look back in my past I can see my successful and disappointing experiences and I realize it was really difficult to find my “suitable dress” for me. It took me ages to discover which one was my Art.
I’ve met Masters (not martial masters only) that showed me how to follow my heart and listen to it.
I follow  the Guru technique and I yield to the endless Sheik love on the Mystic way.

It seems I’ve been away for ages.

Silat makes me stronger every day, makes me feel good and healthy, happy when I practice and in my everyday life.
It takes my heart closer to God as for the ancient fighters (for those people the Art represented a mystic way to be in contact with Heaven and not only combat).

My Murid (students) are happy and follow me with love and faith as in a big family (for some students I’m the uncle and my wife’s the aunt).
I look for absolute efficacy, health and longevity for body and soul, knowledge and consciousness.
I’m back home.
Finally.
And I feel good.
Sometimes someone asks me if I’m converted to a strange religion or belief. I laugh and answer:

“I’m a Christian
I believe and follow the Dharma of Buddha
I pray every day”

A wonderful Sufi poem of the XIII century says:

“One day in the Mosque
The other in the Synagogue
But I only look for You
For You faithful
There’s no heresy
There’s no orthodoxy
I leave the heresy to the heretic
The orthodoxy to the orthodox
And I only look for your essence”